A proposal for exploring data mule based weak rendezvous for communication between loosely coupled convoys

Abstract

The goal of the project presented in this paper is to study a system of weak rendezvous that we introduce to support data mule based communication between two loosely coupled convoys. We will define distributed algorithms to deal with this situation, analyze the behavior of the system and derive upper and lower bounds on the time needed to move information from one convoy to the other. Our approach relies on dynamic graphs relabeling as previously studied in our research group. We will also, as far as possible, develop a prototype using the swarms of robots and UAVs that we have deployed at LaBRI. The approach proposed here is original in that it makes extremely weak assumptions on the network and focuses on the computation of lower bound values -for inter-convoy information exchange -and possibility results, depending on variations of these assumptions. The project described in this paper is